The Bullroarer Atlas

AUSIN-002 - museum specimen

Mulgrave River near Cairns

Australia - North Queensland

Function not recorded

A wattle-wood board painted in the X-ray style with a polychrome fish, strung on a single cord — a Northeast Queensland piece of the general...
Representative image. A wattle-wood board painted in the X-ray style with a polychrome fish, strung on a single cord — a Northeast Queensland piece of the general type, not the specific Periperipo bull-roarer from the Mulgrave River held by the British Museum. University of Edinburgh (St Cecilia's Hall / MIMO), acc. UEDIN 3112 CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source

Periperipo English

Periperipo: the local name recorded in the Mulgrave River region for the bullroarer.

A wooden bullroarer, long oval with slightly convex sides, painted red and black and pierced at one end for a cord. It was collected in the Mulgrave River region near Cairns and bought by the British Museum in 1900 from the dealers Rollin & Feuardent, the field collector being W. Charles Handley. The register names it plainly as "Mulgrave blacks. Periperipo or bull roarer," Periperipo being the local name recorded for the object. A second, larger Mulgrave example from the same lot, also red and black, was shown in London at the Museum of Mankind's 1972–82 exhibition "The Aborigines of Australia."

Mulgrave blacks. Periperipo or bull roarer

British Museum register, object Oc1900,0723.46
Object
Wood bullroarer from Mulgrave or Cairns locality in British Museum collection
Function
Named object anchor for Cairns-Mulgrave area
Map confidence
high - Mulgrave River and Gordonvale area anchor rather than museum exact point
Source location
British Museum object record Oc1900-0723-46; register slip names Mulgrave Blacks and Periperipo

View source Open this point on the interactive map